#303: When is a Döner not a Döner?
And bureaucratic inaction is now affecting both bike paths and (legal) weed cultivation
Hey 20 Percent!
It’s supposed to rain tomorrow during Christopher Street Day, which is a great time to remind you of one of the most annoying German sayings of all: There’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing.
When I read that it was supposed to rain during CSD I thought of my old tradition during Fete de la Musique — it used to rain every year so several years in a row I just donned a rain jacket and walked from rain-soaked stage to rain-soaked stage, picking up a beer or two along the way. It was great craic, as my Irish friends say.
It’s my plan for Saturday at CSD as well, though I’m disappointed that the weather has again turned cool because I’ve been spending most of my downtime in secluded Brandenburg lakes — and I already had plans as well as a lake selected for Sunday.
Have a good weekend!
Andrew
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Should the Döner be protected?
If the International Doner Federation (UDOFED) gets its way, Berlin may at least partially lose its traditional dish. The federation has asked the European Union to protect the term “Döner”, much in the way it guards Italian mozzarella, Spanish serrano ham and French champagne, according to the Morgenpost. If successful, only Döner places that make their sandwiches out of lamb or at-least-16-month-old beef can call themselves Döner restaurants. Even worse: The meat strips can only be two-to-five millimeters thick and have to be cut from the top down using a 55-centimeter knife. German-level pickiness. I guess my vegan Döners won’t be and you’ll be eating chicken shawarma. The EU has six months to listen to appeals and decide.
Not just outside the ring, but outside Berlin
Berlin’s apartment problem is quickly becoming Brandenburg’s — new rents for flats in areas bordering Berlin have sometimes risen more sharply than within Berlin itself, according to RBB. New Berlin renters pay an average 64% higher rent than the average of those who already have a flat. Meanwhile, in Brandenburg, would-be renters in Königs-Wusterhausen have to dole out 93% more and those in Erkner 103% — both areas are southeast of Berlin near BER and the Tesla plant. The differences are drastic partially because of historically low rents in once-forgotten areas but clearly show our apartment problem is having knock-on effects.
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No bike paths, no weed
We should probably have a regular column on Berlin’s bureaucratic sloth — today it would have two items. First up: Cycling activists Changing Cities are helping five people sue our city-state for inaction on building protected cycling paths in Pankow, Mitte, Neukölln, Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf and Licthenberg. Actually, they’re suing Berlin for not responding to their enquiries about the potential for bike paths on high-traffic streets in the boroughs. We’ll keep you updated. And newswire dpa discovered that while Berlin Bezirke are accepting applications for marijuana clubs, they’re not being processed (like so many other applications). Governments are waiting for framework guidelines but at least one politician says making club approvals a neighborhood-level issue is dumb — the clubs should be managed centrally.
Germany-wide news
🚂 Deutsche Bahn lost €1.2bn in first half, laying off 30k
✈️Climate protests shut down Frankfurt airport
👔 German businesses aren’t psyched about the economy
🕌 Iran-linked mosque in Hamburg shuttered
📯Postkutsche 📯
Reader Chris Chinchilla asked us to publicize this English edition of a famous Spanish play with a mostly female cast running nightly through Sunday. You got it Chris!
The House of Bernarda Alba is a tale of power, repression, and the struggle for freedom within a strict, authoritarian household. This innovative reworking by Berlin Open Theatre and Shakespeare Reloaded infuses Lorca's timeless themes with contemporary relevance, exploring the dynamics of control and resistance in new and unexpected ways. Theater Verlängertes Wohnzimmer, Frankfurter Allee 91.
TICKETS
Factoid
Churches own about 1.3% of Berlin, according to Tagesspiegel, but their memberships have shrunk 18% since 2011, putting many in finanical difficulty. The real estate, the newspaper points out, is three-times the size of the former Tempelhof airport, offering a possible source of properties for desperate Berlin apartment hunters.
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It’s 1.2bn EUR, not 1.2m. All the best, a nitpicky German reader
Wow, while I know some people who are disappointed about heat torture being over, I still can’t wrap my head around that. The best part of Berlin summer for me is that it is short, but this year it started in April so that doesn’t work.
As for Döner, all the non-vegetarian people I know (which is not a lot since we’re in the vegan capital of the world) would only get chicken if they absolutely have to, otherwise it’s meat. And sometimes they give reasoning like “chicken is schawarma, not döner”. Why 55 cm knife matters though? And hope they don’t force durum/pita bread as part of tge rules, those grilled triangle pockets are the best.